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Why cant i see firefox on my screen

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Every time I open firefox, It opens in a smaller tab to the right of my screen. I know its open because when I alt Tab, I see it on a smaller scale of my open tab in internet explorer.

Every time I open firefox, It opens in a smaller tab to the right of my screen. I know its open because when I alt Tab, I see it on a smaller scale of my open tab in internet explorer.

Chosen solution

Sometimes Firefox's window gets "off screen" somehow. You often can force it to appear on the screen by right-clicking the little thumbnail image above the Taskbar and choosing Maximize. Does that work?

Note: I assume that still exists in Windows 10 but haven't tested.

One possible cause for this is that the file which stores window sizes and positions has become corrupted. You can remove that file and Firefox will return to standard window sizing.

Method #1: If you can get a maximized window:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?

Method #2: If you cannot get a Firefox window at all:

Shut down Firefox by right-clicking the taskbar icon > Close All Windows.

Using the Run dialog (windows key + R) or the Start menu search bar type or paste the following and press Enter to drill down to the Profiles folder:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Here you may see one folder -- in which case, double-click into that -- or more than one folder -- in which case, double-click into what looks like the most recently updated.

Scroll down and rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?


Then, to turn different bars back on, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

To turn on the Menu Bar, Bookmarks Toolbar, or other bars, click it on the list.

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All Replies (2)

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Have you ever had Firefox installed on your computer before? If so, was it functioning properly before?


Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove your Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. This process does not remove your Firefox profile data (such as bookmarks and passwords), since that information is stored in a different location.

To do a clean reinstall of Firefox, please follow these steps: Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

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Chosen Solution

Sometimes Firefox's window gets "off screen" somehow. You often can force it to appear on the screen by right-clicking the little thumbnail image above the Taskbar and choosing Maximize. Does that work?

Note: I assume that still exists in Windows 10 but haven't tested.

One possible cause for this is that the file which stores window sizes and positions has become corrupted. You can remove that file and Firefox will return to standard window sizing.

Method #1: If you can get a maximized window:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?

Method #2: If you cannot get a Firefox window at all:

Shut down Firefox by right-clicking the taskbar icon > Close All Windows.

Using the Run dialog (windows key + R) or the Start menu search bar type or paste the following and press Enter to drill down to the Profiles folder:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Here you may see one folder -- in which case, double-click into that -- or more than one folder -- in which case, double-click into what looks like the most recently updated.

Scroll down and rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?


Then, to turn different bars back on, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

To turn on the Menu Bar, Bookmarks Toolbar, or other bars, click it on the list.